Tires MICHELIN or Nokia

For your climate I would definitely recommend the Defender 2s. The YK-GTX is quieter on paper, I don't think it's noticeably better. They're noticeably better in the winter than the Defender 2 but you're in SoCal.

I'm a huge fan of the YK-GTX, I've had a set, I've put a set on one of my parent's cars, the Defender 2 will have a significantly longer treadlife.

Make sure you have proper winter tires though, the nokians are excellent

Michelin CrossClimate 3, rilja sve ispod sebe, nigde maknuo nisam jedino kad uđeš u mix bljuzga/sneg/led deru se i osećaju se vibracije ali preciznost i kontrola su odlični.

You’d be fine with just winters. Source: daily a VW Mk7 GTI with winters in northern BC. But, AWD with snow tires and better ground clearance is much better.

Four 215/50/17 Michelin X-Ice Xi-3 snow tires. Good condition. 3 of the four have 9/32" tread remaining. 1 has a little more than 8/32". No patches or plugs.

I've been running Michelin Defenders in recent years - highly recommended.

I like the Michelin E.Primacy all season tires which I bought to replace the OEM Continentals. They are more efficient, ride quality is better, and noise is about equal to the OEM Continentals that came on my Model Y LR.

Studded Nokian studded tires make all the difference.

They'll suck on hard packed snow and ice and anybody who says they are the equivalent to a snow tire is dead wrong. But don't take that as they are bad, they are still good, just not what people hype them up to be during the winter.

I'm lowered on coils but I still rub. I have shitty Westlake tires. I failed inspection because one of the tires was separating. Long story short got a used Michelin tire and well it rubs like shit.